The Allgemeine, that is, General SS, was the common
basis, the main stern, out of which the various branches grew. It was
composed of all members of the SS who did not belong to any of the
special branches.

It was the backbone of the entire organization. The personnel and
officers of the main departments of the SS Supreme Command were members
of this branch. Except for high ranking officers and those in staff
capacities in the main offices of the SS Supreme Command, its members
were part-time volunteers. As the evidence will show, its members were
utilized in about every phase of SS activity. They were called upon in
the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1938; they took over the task of guarding
concentration camps during the war; they participated in the
colonization and resettlement program. In short, the term "SS"
normally meant the General SS.

It was organized on military lines as will be seen from the chart,
ranging from district (Oberabschnitt) and sub-district (Abschnitt) down
through the regiment, battalion, company, to the platoon. Until after
the beginning of the war it constituted numerically the largest branch
of the SS. In 1939 D'Alquen, the official SS spokesman, said, and I
quote from his book, our Document Number 2284-PS, Page 9, Paragraph 3,
of the English translation, and Page 18 of the original document:

"The strength of the General SS,
240,000 men, is subdivided today into 14 corps, 38 divisions, 104
infantry regiments, 19 mounted regiments, 14 communication battalions,
and 9 engineer battalions, as well as motorized and medical units.
This General SS stands fully and wholly on call as in the fighting
years...."

Similar reference
to the military organization of the General SS will be found in
Himmler's speech, "Organization and Obligations of the SS and the
Police," our Document Number 1992(a)-PS, at Page 4 of the
translation, and in the Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1943,
our Document Number 2640-PS, at Pages 4 and 5 of the translation.

Members of this branch, however, with the exception of certain staff
personnel, were subject to compulsory military service. As the result of
the draft of members of the General SS of military age into the Army,
the numerical strength of presently active members considerably declined
during the war. Older SS men and those working in or holding high
positions in the main departments of the Supreme Command of the SS
remained. Its entire strength during the war was probably not in excess
of 40,000 men.

The second component to be mentioned is the Security Service of the
Reichsführer SS, almost always referred to as the SD Himmler
described it in his speech, "Organization and Obligations of the SS